Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser., 1887-05-13
farmers' Column.
Give fools their gold ~ kEaSes their power
Let fortunes bubbles rise and fail;
Who sOws a Fl ield or trains flower,
Or plants a tree. is more than all.
Selling Stock.
BY A. NJ. WILLIAMS.


In no department Of agriculture has
50 much progress been made in the
last twenty years as in the keeping OF
stock. While it is claimed that the
farmer can winter a great deal more
stock and more cheaply by the help 0,
the silo, there are some that oppose IT.,
and for different reasons. But it j,
plain the siIo has come to stay. The
merits of sollng are so great that We
hear of no opposition to it Until a
SHIRT time soiling has been pretty
much limited to a little patch OF sow
ed corn, calculated to feed the stock
when the pastures got short IN sum
mer, and even this little quantity was
very useful. From year to year the
farmer that at first planted little, then
planted more au0 more, and wherevef
the practice was introduced it soon
became general throughout the neigh
borhood. The milkmen living near
the cities, soon learned that sowing
rye in the fall, and feeding the cows
in the spring was an excellent plan,
and this practice is now very common.
Farmers are just learning the value of
this operation and the practice is fast
Increasing in the country. But | want
to caution the inexperienced against
the too common practice of letting the
rye stand too long instead of feeding
it early. 1t is not good hen too old.
The ground on which this rye is raised
should be rich In order to have the
crop ready early, and every day is al
important item. Besides, the feed is
much better when grown rapidly
There is variety of crops that may
be used to follow this rye. | see that
wheat is strongly recommended. The
average farmer will hardly NOV his
wheat to feed green, although he can
easily prove it will-pay. Glover is,
perhaps, the fayorite. Probably there
is nothing better than corn in its sea-
son, but We can't get this early. Last
season | visited farmer who keeps a
dairy and sends his milk TO New York.
He showed me field Of oats and peas
sowed for stock. They were sowed
thick, and stood up straight, although
apparently four feet high. | think
there was more feed for stock on an
acre Of this field than any other acre
| ever saw. The ground had been
very heavily manured. This man sells
about $4,000 worth Of produce year
from farm of $50 acres. But be
keeps large stock and buys 81 900
worth OF New York manure. This
large sum is not got from common
farm crops. He does large business
in market gardening and raising gar
den seeds. His theory is manure is
everything. For raising solling crops
of all kinds, manure should be appli-
ed heavily whenever it can be obtain
ed. A good article for soiling is Hun
garian grass. The land should be
rich and care used not to get 1t too
thick. | prefer to cut it before it
heads out, although think most peo.
pie don't. German millet is extern
sively used for this purpose | have
never tried it but once, which was not
a success; but | have always been sue
cessful with the Hungarian grass for
soiling.
Let us now give a moments consid-
GRAFTON to about the only objection
that can be made to the system Of
soiling stock. This is the extra labor
required. Where the material for
solling is grown near the barn and on
ly small stock is kept it is evident
this extra labor is not great. A man
with a scythe in few minutes can cut
fodder enough for quite number of
cattle. But where the stock IS large
and it is necessary to raise the feed at
a distance, the fodder is usually cut
with moving machine aud drawn to
the barn in wagon loads, like hay
Where it is convenient to have all the
pasture desired this is evidently the
easiest way. But this is seldom the
case. We are tending toward intense
farming. If man has pasture for
two cows, ha wants to keep four. Tnls
he can easily do with a little soiliug.
] hope the farmers who have not yet
tried experiments in this line will, the
coming season, SOW number of crops
for the purpose and | think they will
be well paid. | would especially re-
commend for one oats and peas, and
for another Hungarian grass. The
sooner they are sowed the better. In
this latitude the ground is already in
condition to receive the seed, and the
sooner it is sown the better will be the
crop.-N 7. independent.